How Vision Works

Color Blindness

Color blindness is the inability to differentiate between different colors. The most common type is red-green color blindness. This occurs in 8 percent of males and 0.4 percent of females. It occurs when either the red or green cones are not present or not functioning properly. People with this problem are not completely unable to see red or green, but often confuse the two colors.

This is an inherited disorder and affects men more commonly since the capacity for color vision is located on the X chromosome. (Women have two X chromosomes, so the probability of inheriting at least one X with normal color vision is high; men have only one X chromosome to work with. Click here for more on chromosomes.). The inability to see any color, or seeing only in different shades of gray, is very rare.